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As someone who in a past life worked at a telco..... its insane how common those are. A HUGE part of my job was getting people to use the dang website! They wo

As someone who in a past life worked at a telco..... its insane how common those are. A HUGE part of my job was getting people to use the dang website! They work REALLY REALLY hard to get people to use the website. It's mostly older generations, they refuse to use a website for many of those basic things. A lot of it is an issue of trust, they just don't trust websites.

lumost 6y ago
Not going to lie, as a tech savy software engineer I often just phone telco's. Most of the time I'm calling because my internet is down and I can't go to the website. Or I'm calling because I forgot my password for a website used once every N years. 90% of the time I'm calling, I wouldn't expect the website to have the information I need. Looking at Comcast's website I'm not inclined to look around and find out.
quantified 6y ago
And when you don’t have an internet connection... which is why I might be calling in the first place. See the Comcast comment.
Scoundreller 6y ago
The problem is, the second they have my email address, they start spamming you. When they have to pay $0.62/message, it cuts down on the crap. I’m a member of a profession where you’re supposed to read all of their comms. Now that they’ve switched to email, they send way more crap that I have to sift through and I can’t block them.
- Bjartr 6y ago
  > The problem is, the second they have my email address, they start spamming you. Being (arguably) legitimate companies, their unsubscribe links actually do work.
  - MarkSweep 6y ago
    Microsoft has a couple of newsletters that you can’t unsubscribe from unless you cancel the thing they are related to. For example, Windows 10 insiders, dec essentials, and I think some Azure thing. It’s really annoying.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Thank you for unsubscribing from promotional notifications! However, next week we will be rolling out sales notifications, which are completely different and you are opted into them by default.
  - Scoundreller 6y ago
    It doesn’t stop them from including crap in their invoices now that there’s no printing cost. Then there’s the emails saying: “your bill is ready”, but you gotta login to see what it is and open a PDF. Paper is more convenient.
    - Bjartr 6y ago
      That's not objective though. For instance I prefer a PDF to a mailed invoice.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      Or do it like PayPal: 'PayPal news and your transactions' - 'to view your transactions, please log in on the site. Additionally, here's a bunch of commercial spam.'
      - berdario 6y ago
        That's infuriating, especially because you get that email even if you haven't made transactions on Paypal in months
sosborn 6y ago
> They work REALLY REALLY hard to get people to use the website. And the telcos make it REALLY REALLY hard to use the damn website.
haecceity 6y ago
Websites are hard to use and usually suck. Sometimes you spend an hour looking for something on a website and it tells you to call customer support.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
cameronbrown 6y ago
> It's mostly older generations, they refuse to use a website for many of those basic things. A lot of it is an issue of trust, they just don't trust websites. I don't trust websites. Websites from regulated industries (banking, finance, telecom) are especially slow, confusing and poorly built. Totally understand why people avoid them when they know a better alternative.

lumost 6y ago

Not going to lie, as a tech savy software engineer I often just phone telco's. Most of the time I'm calling because my internet is down and I can't go to the website. Or I'm calling because I forgot my password for a website used once every N years. 90% of the time I'm calling, I wouldn't expect the website to have the information I need. Looking at Comcast's website I'm not inclined to look around and find out.

quantified 6y ago

And when you don’t have an internet connection... which is why I might be calling in the first place. See the Comcast comment.

Scoundreller 6y ago

The problem is, the second they have my email address, they start spamming you. When they have to pay $0.62/message, it cuts down on the crap. I’m a member of a profession where you’re supposed to read all of their comms. Now that they’ve switched to email, they send way more crap that I have to sift through and I can’t block them.

Bjartr 6y ago
> The problem is, the second they have my email address, they start spamming you. Being (arguably) legitimate companies, their unsubscribe links actually do work.
- MarkSweep 6y ago
  Microsoft has a couple of newsletters that you can’t unsubscribe from unless you cancel the thing they are related to. For example, Windows 10 insiders, dec essentials, and I think some Azure thing. It’s really annoying.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Thank you for unsubscribing from promotional notifications! However, next week we will be rolling out sales notifications, which are completely different and you are opted into them by default.
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  It doesn’t stop them from including crap in their invoices now that there’s no printing cost. Then there’s the emails saying: “your bill is ready”, but you gotta login to see what it is and open a PDF. Paper is more convenient.
  - Bjartr 6y ago
    That's not objective though. For instance I prefer a PDF to a mailed invoice.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Or do it like PayPal: 'PayPal news and your transactions' - 'to view your transactions, please log in on the site. Additionally, here's a bunch of commercial spam.'
    - berdario 6y ago
      That's infuriating, especially because you get that email even if you haven't made transactions on Paypal in months

sosborn 6y ago

> They work REALLY REALLY hard to get people to use the website. And the telcos make it REALLY REALLY hard to use the damn website.

haecceity 6y ago

Websites are hard to use and usually suck. Sometimes you spend an hour looking for something on a website and it tells you to call customer support.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

cameronbrown 6y ago

> It's mostly older generations, they refuse to use a website for many of those basic things. A lot of it is an issue of trust, they just don't trust websites. I don't trust websites. Websites from regulated industries (banking, finance, telecom) are especially slow, confusing and poorly built. Totally understand why people avoid them when they know a better alternative.